Kelly calls on Georgian Gov’t to Send ‘Very Clear’ Messages to People
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Wednesday, February 21
(TBILISI)--The US Ambassador to Georgia Ian Kelly has advised the Georgian Government to send “very clear” messages to its population about the importance of integrating into NATO and the EU and distancing itself from Russia.
Kelly made the statement during the opening ceremony of the Strategic Communication training program for Georgian public servants, which aims at boosting the strategic communication skills for the central and the local government staff of Georgia.
The training program is financially supported by the US government, as “the United State strongly supports Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration,” Kelly said.
“It is in our [US] interests for Georgia to come closer to the west, to join the EU and NATO. Consequently, it is very important that you [the government] have public support. You should send very clear messages, very understandable messages, to your people on why integration into the western and not ‘northern’ community is in the public interest,” Kelly stated.
The Ambassador emphasized that if the Georgian government failed to persuade the people about the preference of the country’s Euro-Atlantic integration, “someone else” would take steps to mislead the people.
Georgian Prime Minister highlighted the importance of the strategic communication and appealed to the public servants to use the program opportunities.
“The training will significantly improve strategic communication both in the capital and in the regions and will also provide space for conducting specific surveys. The surveys will be made public and steps will be taken to form the public view in the right way,” the PM stated.
He said that the country highly required the state servants with good strategic communication skills as Russia and many other countries used different forms of hybrid war.
The Strategic Communication Training program will be implemented by the Georgian Centre for Security and Development (GSCD).
